Need to cook a festive vegan meal

[dirtyprettything]

Friends coming for a festive lunch on 27th Dec. I'd really like to cook a vegan meal for everyone this time rather than just doing a 'side' dish for my friend.

2 ideas I have:
Nut roast parcels in film pastry, rosaries & veg

Or pasta with veg sauce, stuffed peppers and salad

It sounds nice to me but not sure if I am the most adventurous cook! Anyone have any better ideas?!
Tia.

Roasties not rosaries FFS.

Once cooked vegan christmas dinner for friends.

Made

Lemon and black pepper cashew nut roast with a ginger and coriander butternut squash filling. Roast potatoes, roast red onions, roast beetroot with parsley, spicy tomato sauce instead of gravy, honey/lemon glazed carrots and parsnips.

I thought I had made loads and there would be heaps of leftovers, but every last bit was finished.

When I was vegan my foolproof Xmas main was a sausage/stuffing/mushroom roll.

Basically just get some pre-made pastry (puff, not shortcrust, and Jus-Rol is vegan so that's safe), and some sos mix or similar (whatever vegan mix you can find for fake sausages).

Then make the mix with water, lay out your pastry, and put a big line of sausage mix down the middle. Put some stuffing on top of that, and if you want to push the boat out then sauté some mushrooms and spinach in garlic and put that on top too. Roll it up, bang it in the oven, slice to serve. Job done!

You then just have all the usual Xmas fixings with it, and leftovers are also good cold

If you're going to do nut roast though, I'd check your friend likes it, because I don't and I always felt awkward whenever I got served it

I think one year I did some mushroom and fake cream cheese parcels with filo pastry... They don't go as well with gravy though. Anything with pastry is always good!

I'm doing a kind of nut roast lattice for my xmas dinner. I recently cooked a vegan 'coq au vin' which went down well too. I've got more xmas recipes (some veggie, some vegan) on my blog.

Have a look at the Deliciously Ella site. She has some great recipes and is doing lots of festive food.

When I was a veggie I actually used to twitch if I was given more pasta or more filled peppers. Loving the pastry ideas though!

Onykahonie Just looked at your blog. The recipes look great!

Vegans don't often get the full roast - so find out if that's the case with your friend and if so, make her a roast. Otherwise do something different. Mexican usually goes down well, just use vegan cheese but the rest is usually ok for vegans.

It's obviously just a matter of personal taste but I'm not a nut-roast fan either, it tends to feel like a meat substitute and for me vegan/veggies meals work best when they are not trying to be something they are not. Ottolenghi has some amazing recipes and you get quite a few online through the guardian.

Personally I'd avoid a roast. I must admit that by the 27th I'm usually craving a curry.

Thanks LoveMyBoots

We always have Mediterranean roast veg. But maybe we are weird.

I made a delicious roast recently with beetroot and parsnips, the recipe calls for a bit of butter but I forgot to put it in and it was fine. Paired with a veggie gravy and roast veg it would be lovely. I will look for the recipe.

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/24667/root-vegetable-nut-roast.aspx
This is the one, it's far more moist and tasty than most nut roasts.

I would do a Mushroom & squash vegetarian Wellington with all the trimmings.

But tbh by the 27th I crave light lunches.

We like nut roast with lots of roasties and parsnips and all the other trad stuff. DC and DH also like sausages (veggie) and cauli cheese with it.
Just because we're veggie doesn't mean we don't do tradition
The roasties are the stars of the show here - along with the parsnips

Good to see something veggie - vegan even - in DOTD

Some lovely ideas, here, guys!

Personally, I've found a h/made haggis to be both easier and tastier than a nut roast, and at Christmas I make a de luxe version - en croute, in a brioche dough (made with olive oil, rather than butter). Play around with it as you will.

For a starter, I'll be having a variation on a stuffed field mushroom [need a separate recipe for this), with fresh home-made bread (from the freezer! ). I'll probably use some combination of Pateole mushroom spread/pesto/hummus.

We're lucky to have vegan Xmas pudding provided by my sister.

I'd say definitely check, because my veggie husband doesn't like goat's cheese or blue cheese, and isn't keen on mushrooms or aubergines!

He likes but roast though!

I've made this, it was really delicious www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1016636/festive-squash-jalousie

I clicked on this as scan read DoD's as thought it was Virgin Festivities

I'll also probably make a [[http://nobreadisanisland.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/vegan-chocolate-cake-how-easy-is-this.html vegan Yule log for the family.

Onykahonie - have to agree with LoveMyBoots, that's a great blog you've got there! I've signed up to follow you on email. Anyone who can critique one of Paul Hollywood's recipes with such aplomb gets my support!

Oops!

vegan Yule log

I was out to Christmas lunch today and had the most amazing salad - it was roasted carrots (tiny, skinny little things) with caramelised onions, pecan nuts, pea shoots and an amazing sauce; I think it might have been cream(?) with a bit of horseradish (only a touch) or mustard - it wasn't strong but the flavours were wonderful.

I think that might be vegan apart from the cream but it would be just as nice with a vinaigrette that would definitely make it so. It was a sweetish salad but not sickly.

I'm not vegetarian but I'd definitely have that again. :)